quote:Accused Aurora movie theater gunman James Holmes bought his movie ticket 12 days before the shooting, it was revealed in court today during the emotional first day of a preliminary hearing.

Aurora Police Department homicide detective Matthew Ingui testified that there is no video surveillance of the actual shooting, but there are several photos of Holmes checking into the theater kiosk with his cellphone. He scanned his phone three times.

Surveillance footage shown in court for the first time also showed Holmes lingering by the concession stand for about three minutes before entering theater nine dressed in dark pants, a light colored shirt and a skull cap. He would later be caught wearing a bullet proof vest and a gas mask.

When they first spotted him outside the theatre

quote:Officer Jason Oviatt said he first thought Holmes was a cop because he was wearing a gas mask and helmet, but as he got closer realized he was not an officer and held Holmes at gunpoint.

Throughout the search and arrest, Holmes was extremely compliant, the officer said.

"He was very, very relaxed," Oviatt said. "These were not normal reactions to anything. He seemed very detached from it all."

Oviatt said Holmes had extremely dilated pupils and smelled badly when he was arrested.

Info on his booby traps(confirmed they were there to go off before shooting to distract police)

quote:The apartment was rigged with a tripwire at the front door connected to a mixture of chemicals that would create heat, sparks and flame. Holmes had soaked the carpet with a gasoline mixture that was designed to be ignited by the tripwire, Gumbinner said.

"It would have caused fire and sparks," the agent said, and "would have made the entire apartment explode or catch fire."

Holmes had set his computer to play 25 minutes of silence followed by loud music that he hoped would cause a disturbance loud enough that someone would call police, who would then respond and set off the explosion by entering the apartment.

Gumbinner said Holmes also told him he rigged a fuse between three glass jars that would explode. He filled the jars with a deadly homemade chemical mixture that would burn so hot it could not be extinguished with water.

quote:Holmes set a second detonation system outside the building, the agent said.

Holmes, Gumbinner said, rigged one of the triggering devices, called a "pyro trip box" with a remote control. He then took the remote control outside and placed it on top of a white trash bag near the apartment building.

Next to the remote, Holmes placed a remote control car. Inside the trash bag, he put a portable stereo set to play 40 minutes of silence, followed by loud music, the agent said.

The plan, Gumbinner explained, was for someone to hear the music and be drawn to the remote control car with what appeared to be the remote control lying next to it. When that person picked up the remote to activate the car, he or she would have unknowingly triggered the explosion in the apartment.

Holmes also left rows of white powder on the floor, which Gumbinner said was ammonium chloride. The powder, Gumbinner believes, was meant "to scare us" and would have created a large amount of smoke if it had ignited.

Strange actions after being arrested

quote:Appel said that to preserve possible gunshot residue, police had placed paper bags over Holmes' hands. One officer, King said, noted in a report that Holmes began moving his hands "in a talking puppet motion."

King asked if Appel was also aware that the officer "observed Holmes take a staple out of the table and tried to stick it in an electrical socket?" Appel confirmed Holmes' actions.

Timeline and list of guns and chemicals he bought

quote:Agent Steve Beggs gave the prosecution a timeline that showed Holmes started his buying spree on May 10, 2012 with the online purchase of tear gas grenades. From then until July 14, Beggs testified, Holmes legally bought nearly 6,300 rounds of ammunition, two Glock .40 caliber pistols, a .223 caliber semi-automatic rifle, a 12-guage shotgun, ballistic protection clothing, beam laser lights, bomb-making material and handcuffs. Some of the purchases were made online and some were made in person.

Video surveillance taken as Holmes was buying several of the items in person showed that he had what Beggs described at “reddish-orange hair” at the time. Holmes hair was dyed the same striking color at the time of the shooting.

He took pictures a few hours before the shooting

quote:About six hours before the attack, Holmes took a series of photos on his phone. In one he wears black contact lenses and a black stocking cap, with two tufts of his dyed-red hair sticking out like a pair of horns. In another he holds a pistol beneath his face, twisted into a grin. In a third, much of his arsenal - the assault rifle and shotgun, magazines for ammunition, tactical gear and bags to carry rounds - is displayed on a red sheet on his bed.

re: Aurora Theatre shooting goes to pretrial, details finally being released (Posted on 1/9/13 at 9:55 am to barry)

quote:I'm pretty sure they were selling tickets to this movie far in advance but for all we know it could have been just this theater, something you had to do in person.

The conspiracy loons don't want to hear this logic. Give it a few days and this opinion about not being able to buy tickets that far in advance will suddenly become a known fact and will be part of the spin machine with whatever BS theory is being promoted.

re: Aurora Theatre shooting goes to pretrial, details finally being released (Posted on 1/9/13 at 9:57 am to notiger1997)

quote:quote: I'm pretty sure they were selling tickets to this movie far in advance but for all we know it could have been just this theater, something you had to do in person.

The conspiracy loons don't want to hear this logic. Give it a few days and this opinion about not being able to buy tickets that far in advance will suddenly become a known fact and will be part of the spin machine with whatever BS theory is being promoted.

Why would they make up that he bought the ticket 12 days in advance? What would that possibly add to the "conspiracy"?

re: Aurora Theatre shooting goes to pretrial, details finally being released (Posted on 1/9/13 at 10:04 am to barry)

quote:barry

All of that is very interesting to read. I have not really followed many of the details, can someone tell me why all his booby traps didn't work? From your post it looks like he set 2 in his apt and 1 outside, yet none of them acutally worked (I guess, I figure I would have heard if they did work).